THE MUSTANG ARCHIVES: ANALYSIS OF HANDWRITTEN DOCUMENTS VIA THE ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY OF PAPERMAKING TRADITIONS IN NEPAL

该项目旨在通过微观研究，对尼泊尔木斯塘当地村庄和家庭档案中以前编目和注明日期的各种纸张文件进行鉴定和分类。这也将有助于在野马的特殊环境中重建纸张的历史。总的来说，我的目标是通过对文本所写的纸张进行科学分析，建立一个坚实的地理和期刊目录和数据库，至少涵盖过去两个世纪，并为早期作品提供数据。在一组过时的文件中，将从Lubrak，Geling，Lower Tshognam，贾果德、罗蒙唐的私人收藏，以及其他可能的收藏品。这些作品大多是世俗性质的，信件，社区文件等数据将根据申请人以前在中亚手稿上的工作开发的codicological模板记录。从手稿中收集的信息将与该地区仍然使用的图书生产实践进行比较，使用二手文献和对工匠的采访。在野马和邻近地区的实地考察期间，将研究书籍生产，造纸和印刷的活跃场所。将记录造纸技术和方法、工具和使用的材料。 这一跨学科的项目，将档案文献的文本和编纂学分析与木斯塘的民族志和植物学田野调查以及手稿文化的探索相结合，对藏学研究者来说将是极其重要的。由此产生的纸张和数据库的时间顺序类型将立即用于世界各地的纸张历史学家和保护者。最后，对于木斯塘当地人来说，这个项目有可能改变对西藏文字的看法以及文件和书籍制作的技术，并为我们了解曾经独立的木斯塘王国的文化历史做出重大贡献。

This project aims to identify and classify, through microscopic study, the paper varieties of previously catalogued and dated documents from local villages and family archives in Mustang, Nepal. It will also contribute to reconstructing the history of paper in the very special environment of Mustang. Overall, my aim is to build, via scientific analysis of the paper on which the texts are written, a solid geographical and periodical catalogue and database that will cover at least the last two centuries, and provide data for earlier works as well.Of the group of dated documents, all together two hundred papers will be selectively sampled and examined from the archives of the communities of Lubrak, Geling, Lower Tshognam, a private collection in Jharkot, Lo Monthang, and other possible collections previously catalogued. These works are mostly of a secular nature, letters, community documents, etc. Data will be recorded according to the codicological template developed by previous work of the applicant on manuscripts from Central Asia. Information gathered from the manuscripts will be compared with book production practices still used in the region, using secondary literature and interviews with craftsmen. Active places of book production, papermaking, and printing will be researched during fieldwork in Mustang and neighbouring areas. Papermaking technology and methods, tools, and materials being used will be documented. Papermaking plants and other resources on book culture will be mapped.This interdisciplinary project, combining textual and codicological analysis of archival documents with ethnographic and botanical fieldwork and exploration of manuscript cultures in Mustang, will be of extreme importance for researchers in Tibetan Studies. The resulting chronological typology of paper and database will be of immediate use to paper historians and conservators around the world. And finally, for the local people of Mustang, this project has the potential to change perceptions of Tibetan writing and techniques of documents and book production, as well as to make a major contribution to our understanding of the cultural history of the once-independent kingdom of Mustang.